Press freedom: Challenge of changing words into deeds

The Pan African Parliament's (PAP) launch of a media freedom
campaign through a "Dialogue on Media Freedom in Africa" in mid-May marks an
important and welcome starting point. For too long, media freedom has been
divorced from the debate around development and democratization when it has an
integral role to play in promoting transparency, underpinning good governance,
and enabling citizens to make informed decisions.

However, the week after the Pan African Parliament (PAP) released
the "Midrand
Declaration on Press Freedom in Africa," on May 15, CPJ reported on a media
crackdown in Uganda,
the hostile environment facing reporters in Kenya,
and threats made by a Liberian
presidential aide against journalists critical of him or the presidency. These
are but three examples that illustrate the yawning gap between policy and
implementation challenging governments across the continent. They also offer a
sobering footnote to the diverse interpretation of media freedom articulated by
various Pan African parliamentarians who took part in the one-day dialogue that
endorsed the declaration.

The Midrand Declaration draws on a variety of African
protocols, articles, and declarations, including Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights
that underscore the right of Africans to freedom of expression, as well as the Declaration
of Table Mountain that seeks to abolish "insult laws" and criminal
defamation. It also initiates a campaign on "Press Freedom for Development and
Governance: Need for Reform" in the continent and the establishment of an
annual press freedom index.

PAP President Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi opened the discussion by
saying that press freedom was essential in a modern democracy. He said he hoped
the result of the day's deliberations would be that countries would replace
laws that hamper freedom of expression with those that give people access to
the "critical tool" of information.

Kwame Karikari, director of the Media Foundation for West
Africa, said that the main source of danger threatening the African media came
in the guise of criminal legislation. He said that more and more governments
were resorting to using laws like insult to the president or religion, criminal
defamation, false publication, and damaging a person's honor to suppress media
freedom.

PAP members were outspoken and sharply divided in their
responses to the presentations lauding the merits of a vibrant and free press.
While several parliament members reiterated the importance of press freedom and
its close link with democracy, others castigated the media on allegations of Western
bias and control and a lack of accountability and disrespect to African leaders.

"We have too much freedom in Tanzania," one parliamentarian
said. "I suggest we should have our own [African] definition of freedom of
expression. We have to be careful. Conflict is caused by the media."

A Malawian parliamentarian lambasted the media for its
"irresponsible and sarcastic reporting." Journalists, he said, had to be more
"objective." He objected to MISA's characterization of South Africa President
Jacob Zuma as "thin-skinned" because of the civil defamation charges he had
instituted against the media and said it was not the media's role to make
people look like fools.

By contrast, a Ugandan MP, in a remark prescient of last
week's events
in Kampala, said, "Closing media, radio stations does not bring about
democracy. We need to ask ourselves some questions: If you do not have anything
to hide, why don't you explain your cause on any media?"

But if PAP members are divided in their understanding of the
value of a vibrant, free, and independent media, they are united in their
frustration that the PAP is unable to pass binding legislation or enforce any resolutions.
For now, the PAP can only take the four sub-themes of the media freedom
campaign--safety of journalists and impunity; law reform; the building of a sustainable
industry; and access to information--and encourage a series of dialogues in the
other four regions of the continent.

Consensus notwithstanding, at least the agenda is set and a parliamentary
conversation has begun.

Sue Valentine, CPJ's Africa program coordinator, has worked as a journalist in print and radio in South Africa since the late 1980s, including at The Star newspaper in Johannesburg and as the executive producer of a national daily current affairs radio show on the SABC, South Africa's public broadcaster.